Ten Great Australian Moments at the Oscars

FROM our very first nominee to our posthumous winners, Hugh Jackman as host and the outrageous frock we’re still talking about 20 years later.

WE want to share with you the 10 great Australian moments at the Academy Awards, or rather more known today as the Oscars.

Follow all the live action on the red carpet for the 2014 Oscars here on Monday as all the stars step out for their big da y.

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1. THE FIRST

May Robson was the first ever Australian Oscar nominee in 1933, for her role as a drunk hired to pretend to be a young starlet’s mother in Lady By Choice. Robson was 75 at the time. She was born in Melbourne but had moved to the UK as a child, then to the US as a teenager. The first Aussie Oscar win came nine years later, when Ken G. Hall — now considered a legend of the Australian film industry — was awarded Best Documentary Feature for Kokoda Front Line!

2. THE FIRST ACTORS

In 1971, Peter Finch was the first Australian to be nominated for Best Actor for his role in British drama Sunday Bloody Sunday. Five years later he went one better, becoming the first Australian to win an acting Oscar for Network. Sadly, it was a posthumous win — Finch died of a heart attack two months before the Awards. Nicole Kidman became the first Aussie female to clasp an acting statuette in 2002, winning for The Hours.

Actor Peter Finch in Network in the role that won Australia its first best actor Oscar.

3. HUGH, THE HOST

After five years of pinning their hopes on comedians, the Oscars took a diversion in 2009 ... And boy, did our Hugh Jackman give ’em the old razzle dazzle! The vibe was distinctly Broadway, from his recession-themed opening number (in which he grabbed an “unsuspecting” Anne Hathaway out of the front row and warbled “I am Wolverine!”) to his top hat ’n’ tails tribute to musicals with Beyonce (a segment overseen by Baz Luhrmann, by the way). Bravo!

Oscar host Hugh Jackman dances with Beyoncé Knowles and Amanda Seyfried during his 2009 hosting gig.

4. LIZZY GARDINER’S AMEX DRESS

The Priscilla, Queen of the Desert costume designer not only won gold at the 1995 Academy Awards, she wore gold. Or, more precisely, she wore a dress made out of 254 American Express gold credit cards. It has been judged one of the worst Oscar gowns of all time, but like Bjork’s swan dress or Sharon Stone’s el cheapo Gap skivvy, it is also an Oscar outfit we’re still talking about all these years later.

Australian costume designer Lizzy Gardiner wearing dress made out of American Express gold credit cards at the Academy Awards 27 Mar 1995.

5. HEATH AND HEARTBREAK

“In a year of striking film images, perhaps the most unforgettable was that of a man, his face smeared in clown make-up, gleefully sticking his head out of a speeding car, relishing the night wind and revelling in the chaos he has unleashed on the streets of Gotham City. Menacing, mercurial, droll and diabolic ...” So Kevin Kline described Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, moments before the late Australian was announced the winner of the 2009 Best Supporting Actor Oscar. An emotional acceptance from his parents and sister followed. Ledger and Peter Finch remain the only two actors to have won Oscars posthumously.

Heath Ledger, who, along with fellow Aussie Peter Finch, is the only star to win a best actor gong posthumously.

6. RUSTY’S DREAM COME TRUE

Humble may not be the first word one associates with Russell Crowe, but his acceptance speech when he picked up Best Actor for Gladiator was all class: “You know when you grow up in the suburbs of Sydney or Auckland or Newcastle ... or the suburbs of anywhere, a dream like this seems vaguely ludicrous and completely unobtainable. But this moment is directly connected to those childhood imaginings. For anybody who’s on the downside of advantage and relying purely on courage, it’s possible.”

Russell Crowe with his 2001 best actor Oscar.

7. THE LAST 20 YEARS

Oscar recognition used to be rare for Australians. Then, in the mid-1990s, our nation started punching above its weight. Mel Gibson and his partner in Icon Films, Bruce Davey, nabbed a couple for Bravehart. Babe was nominated, as was Shine, with Geoffrey Rush becoming the first Aussie to win Best Actor in 20 years. Rachel Griffiths scored a nomination, so too did Toni Collette, Naomi Watts and Russell Crowe; then came wins for Crowe, Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett. Heath Ledger and Hugh Jackman entered the race, our cinematographers and costume designers became known as the best in the biz, editor Kirk Baxter won two back-to-back and Jacki Weaver gave new meaning to the term “golden girl”. Now we expect, rather than hope, when it comes time for the nominations to be read out.

8. NO ORDINARY ORRY

Rush, Blanchett, Crowe and Kidman have all been nominated several times. But long before this lot, one Australian practically owned his category for a decade: costume designer Orry-Kelly. The New South Welshman, who had worked as a tailor and window dresser in his homeland, followed a dream of being an actor all the way to the USA. But it was in designing for and dressing the stars that he found his niche. Orry-Kelly was nominated four times between 1951 and 1962 and won three. The actors he dressed to earn these Oscars? Oh, only Gene Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood.

Aussie costume designer Orry-Kerry was nominated for Oscars four times, for dressing the likes of Marilyn Monroe.

9. RED CARPET QUEENS

The Oscars weren’t always about the pre-event red-carpet fashion, you know. The woman who changed the game? Nicole Kidman. When she stepped onto the red carpet ahead of the 1997 Academy Awards, she stepped it up with a trendsetting, Asian-influenced green silk Galliano number. Tom who? In the years since, Kidman has always been prepared to take a risk, with often stunning results: Think the shimmering black and gold L’Wren Scott mermaid dress. The flawless red Balenciaga with bow-turned-train. The sheer black Jean Paul Gaultier the year she won for The Hours ... Just as dependable a red carpet risk-taker is Cate Blanchett, who took her first steps on the Oscar carpet in 1999 in body-hugging black knit dress with custom embroidery on which she had collaborated with Galliano. A year later, she dared to bare her back with rocking gold adornments. She’s also been a radiant mum-to-be in royal blue; shimmered in silver Armani; won the war in battle-inspired, avant garde lavender Givenchy; and won a statuette for playing an Old Hollywood legend while looking like one in classic yellow taffeta by Valentino.

Nicole Kidman is an Oscars red carpet winner year after year.

10. THINKING MAN’S KRUMPET

Australia loves an underdog and that’s exactly what Melbourne animator Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs were going into the 2004 Academy Awards. As a nominee in the Best Animated Short category, their claymation film Harvie Krumpet — about a war-time immigrant who always looked on the bright side despite a lifetime of bad luck — was up against films made by powerhouse studios Pixar, Disney and Blue Sky (Ice Age). Harvie won. On stage, Elliot made history by thanking “my beautiful boyfriend Dan” — the first time anyone had openly referred to a same-sex partner in an Oscar acceptance speech.

Oscars winner Adam Elliot keeps his eyes on the prize.